Trump'n'yahoostein orders fresh round of foreign baby killing

"This one's on US"

💬🍺💥👊👺👿👹👃💩 💀👻💭

Long Live The New Flesh!

3/7/2024 

 

3/23/2024

 

3/20/2025

 

Time lapse photo montage showing significant recovery from last year's small bowel adhesion removal. The new scar is approximately three times as long as the original colectomy incision. The concavity at left is what remains of the temporary ostomy that was taken down before reconnective surgery several years ago. Seems I've put on a little weight as well :)

Lost in translation

καίτοι τοσοῦτόν γ᾽ οἶδα, μήτε μ᾽ ἂν νόσον
μήτ᾽ ἄλλο πέρσαι μηδέν: οὐ γὰρ ἄν ποτε
θνῄσκων ἐσώθην, μὴ 'πί τῳ δεινῷ κακῷ.

- Sophocles, from Oedipus Tyrannus

["Although I know so much, I will not suffer any sickness 

or anything else: for if I were ever saved by dying, 

I would not be saved from the terrible evil."] 

 

Another translation has it:

 

[So much, at least, I know, that no sickness or other factor 

would have killed me; for I should never have been saved 

from death but for some dreadful evil.] 

 

The latter sense of "this alone I know" (or more precisely "at least this") is echoed in Fagles. Especially in light of his name, it can be taken as a summation not only of 

Oedipus's character but of the human claim to knowledge according to Sophocles.

'I don't like bugs. Are you some kind of fascist? Or... wait, what's that other one...'
 

- typical reaction to the phrase "insectoid intelligence" from a sophisticated market analysis performed by 95 genetically modified fruit flies (in a jar)

Mixmaster Morris @ Atmospheric Audio Chair 1994

Also available at Internet Archive: 

https://archive.org/details/rave_Mixmaster_Morris_Live_In_Chicago

Giant metasurvey reveals 'catastrophic' butterfly losses in US

An alarmingly steep decline in populations across butterfly species is occurring in the United States that shows no sign of reversing, according to research conducted at Michigan State University and recently published in Science. 

Some eyebrow-raising findings include 107 species that lost half or more of their populations and, while not every species saw declines, 13 times the number of species did. Monarchs, once thought to be relatively protected due in part to a high level of public interest, have been hit hard as well; some other species in the MSU study lost more than 90% of their populations! 

The culprits are hardly surprising: climate change, habitat loss, overuse of insecticides and inappropriate agricultural land use patterns. What is surprising is that no one had performed such a large scale study of butterfly populations in the US before, and that as a consequence little was known about the severity of their plight beyond (now vindicated) informal observations of their decline over the past 20-odd years. 

We urgently need public officials to develop a strategy for mitigating these losses and for everyone to become aware of the enormous scope of life that is at serious risk of irreversible deterioration if business as usual includes continued ignorance or lack of concern with their - and our - collective peril. As one scientist interviewed put it, "The tree of life is being denuded at unprecedented rates." The price cannot be calculated. 

You can get involved. Sign this petition. Plant a butterfly garden in your yard.

While we're at it, I think we all owe a big THANK YOU to Seth Borenstein at the AP for his outstanding coverage of climate and Earth science news over the past couple of years, including bringing news of this kind to a wider audience.